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A large part of my treatment and healing the past month has involved battling thought distortions with God’s word, positive affirmations and remembering all I have to be grateful for.

This weekend I’ll be singing on praise team at church, the first time in a long time as even thinking about it the past 6 months has brought me great anxiety. I was starting to get anxious about singing this weekend and then I looked at the songs we were going to sing.

It was as if God hugged me from heaven.

One of the songs we’ll be singing is 10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman. It’s one of our family’s favorite songs. The kids sing it at the top of their lungs and it’s so great!

The day after I saw what songs we were singing I woke up to the thought of “we should think of 10,000 reasons that we are thankful.”

That day in treatment one of our sessions was on being thankful and they had us write as many things we were thankful for as we could. Woo woo! I was able to get over 200 things listed and it was a great start to our list.

Last night I shared my idea with Pat and the kids. They might have been a little hesitant but after I rolled out the paper they got excited!

Pat had brought home this huge roll of paper a few years ago. So glad we kept it!

Now don’t worry, I am being realistic. We want to finish it by Christmas so we have four weeks. Plus with four of us doing it we really only need to come up with 2500 each.

It’s also opened up my eyes to the many many things that God has blessed me with. Even if we don’t make it to 10,000 I’m thankful for this idea the Lord put on my heart.

In other news, I’m so thankful for my hubby! He is amazing in so many ways! One of His amazing ways is that he can build anything. Since the kids started at their new school, they have been obsessed with arts and dancing and singing and crafting and making a huge mess!

They mainly do their art and coloring and writing on the floor – well on paper on the floor. So I asked Pat if he could build a little craft table. He only spent $15 and he made this:

We had the white bookshelf already and he added the extension. It is so perfect and helps keep all their supplies in one place.

I have much more to share but that will have to keep for another day.

I pray you have a blessed Thanksgiving and I encourage you too, to count the reasons!

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Angel turned 7 on October 24th! I still can’t believe she is so grown up. One day she’s a tiny little red-headed chubby monkey baby and the next she’s talking about getting invited to a boy’s birthday party. Um, no.

Angel ended up having two birthday parties and a third kind of party.

She had a birthday party with her friends the day after her birthday. It was a Saturday and I scheduled the party from 11:00 am – 3:00 pm.

Yes. Yes I am a crazy person.

I have since learned my lesson that two hours is plenty of time for a party for hyper, loud little girls.

As soon as everyone arrived – mostly friends from school that we didn’t really know so that was weird, and a few other friends – we had lunch. Since we were going with a butterfly theme for her party I decided it would be fun to make mini butterfly shaped pizzas. I used the Grands Biscuits and unfortunately they turned out a little puffy. But the girls thought it was cool.

I’m still thanking Jesus that it was a beautiful day outside. If it hadn’t had been, I’m pretty sure I would have completely lost my mind. However it worked out perfectly as after each activity or game Pat would take all the girls outside for 20 minutes or so while I got set up for the next activity. Poor guy. He was picking leaves out of his pants for days. Hahaha.

After lunch we did an obstacle course. This is something that Mom had handed down to us and I felt it was important to continue with the tradition. The kids had to dress up, dress and undress a doll, stack and unstack some blocks and then take the dress up clothes off. After the first team went we eliminated the dressing and undressing a doll because it was taking FOR. EVER. I only managed to snap two pictures:

Hahaha. Yes, Caleb and his friend Isaac also participated!

After the obstacle course, the kids headed outside again to torture Pat. Then it was time to decorate cupcakes.

I wouldn’t say this was a disaster. My house was a disaster as I decided to let the girls go crazy with sprinkles. Oh well.

Angel cakes with her candle-lit cupcake.

After cupcakes it was back outside. Do you see a pattern? It took us a little longer to clean up after the cupcakes – goodness there were sprinkles seriously everywhere!

Next was making bracelets. No pictures of this because I was trying to control the chaos. I’m still finding beads on my floor. Seriously. The kids had fun though, except when I made their strings too small and they would attempt to put on their necklace and it would break and send beads flying everywhere. Good times.

Finally it was time for opening presents. And it was only 1:00! I texted all the parents to tell them that it would be perfectly fine to pick up their kids at 2:00 instead of 3:00. Party planning fail! Most of the parents did end up picking up kids close to 2:00.

I didn’t get pictures of Angel opening her presents but she was extremely blessed by what she received.

All in all it was a exhausting good day!

On Halloween Angel got to open a present from Tracy and Patricia. Her family birthday was the next day and unfortunately they were going to be out-of-town.

Her family birthday was lots of fun. Aunt Nellie was still in town which is always a bonus! We had a light lunch and I wimped out and bought a pie for her cake but she was happy so that’s all that matters!

Then we opened presents and once again she was blessed beyond measure! Caleb has liked LEGOs for quite some time but Angel just recently started liking them. So she received many new LEGO sets!

We were also thankful that Pastor Kirk and Gloria were able to come to Angel’s party. They are just like family to us – Gloria pretty much raised my kids their first year or two!

So I’ll say it again, I can’t believe my baby girl is 7!

She is so smart, she reads like a champ.

She is so funny, she makes us laugh non-stop.

She loves Jesus and loves to sing about Him and write about Him.

She loves her Mommy and Daddy and brother. It’s her favorite place to be – with her family – and I’m so thankful as I know that might not always be the case!

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We’ve had many conversations with the kids about how God speaks to us. They love Jesus but are still a little too young to completely grasp the concept of God “speaking”.

Caleb will say, “But I don’t hear anything Mom.”

I’ll tell him that God speaks to our heart and he’ll give me the Mom you are crazy look.

But I know I’m not crazy. Well at least about God speaking. Because He does and it’s such an amazing, overwhelming experience when He clearly speaks.

I had that experience Wednesday night.

One of my co-workers is struggling through some things and Wednesday night I sent her a text that said, “Praying Philippians 4:6-7 for you…”

A little bit later Wednesday night I was talking to my sister on the phone and we were talking about some of the struggles we were going through. She had some things going on yesterday that were causing some fear and anxiety. At the last minute of our phone call I told her about the verse I shared with my co-worker. I asked her to read it and that hopefully it could give her peace through her situation too.

She said, “Oh my gosh, hang on. That verse is in my journal.”

Side note:

A few weeks ago we were talking about the struggle of life and faith and she told me that she had committed to reading her bible and journaling about certain verses that spoke to her. She encouraged me to do the same thing and so we’ve been trying to hold each other accountable through that.

End side note:

So she grabs her journal and she says, “Yep, it’s on the very first page. Philippians 4:6-7 – Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Wow. Thank you Jesus. I’m pretty God was wanting me to clearly see and hear the promise from that scripture too!

For the Word of God is alive and active. Hebrews 4:12

I’m finding myself at a loss for words And the funny thing is it’s okay The last thing I need is to be heard But to hear what You would say

Word of God speak Would You pour down like rain Washing my eyes to see Your majesty

To be still and know That You’re in this place Please let me stay and rest In Your holiness Word of God speak

I’m finding myself in the midst of You Beyond the music, beyond the noise All that I need is to be with You And in the quiet hear Your voice

Word of God speak Would You pour down like rain Washing my eyes to see Your majesty

To be still and know That You’re in this place Please let me stay and rest In Your holiness Word of God speak

Word of God speak Would You pour down like rain Washing my eyes to see Your majesty

To be still and know That You’re in this place Please let me stay and rest In Your holiness Word of God speak

I’m finding myself at a loss for words And the funny thing is it’s okay